You Aren't Getting Any Younger...or Are You?

Forget anti-aging, we have entered the era of de-aging. Meet the test that has become the new 23andMe.

-  APRIL LONG

How old are you, exactly? That used to be an easy-if impertinent-question to answer. It turns out the truth is a moving target. There's your chronological age the number of candles on your birthday cake-but there's also your biological age, which is, essentially, the age of your cells. While the chronological clock moves inexorably forward (don't we know it), recent studies show that biological age is more malleable. Yes, it can even be reversed.

For those intent on living forever-primarily those with enough Benjamins to become Benjamin Buttons-biological de-aging has become a competitive sport. There's tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, chronologically 45, who has recruited a team of 30 doctors to develop an experimental regimen he calls Project Blueprint, through which he aims to rewind his cellular clock to before he was old enough to drink (18, to be exact). At a cost of $2 million a year, he pops scores of pills a day, subsists primarily on vegan smoothies, works out like an Olympian, and undergoes monthly blood tests, MRIs, and colonoscopies. His doctors say he has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old (thanks to regular full-body laser treatments), and the lungs of a teenager, with an overall biological age of 40. You may also have read about Zuzalu, a two-month, invite-only, longevity-focused gathering of crypto elites that took place in Montenegro this spring. On the docket for discussion was the establishment of a regulation-free zone (possibly in Rhode Island) where biotech companies would be able to experiment with age-reversing drugs sans FDA interference.